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I am White First and an Artist Second

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Have you ever noticed how, in interviews, Black artists
are asked whether they are artist’s firsts or Black first?

I wish a nucca would come at me with that.

Today, I refuse to validate that kind of binary thinking.

I would reply, Would you ask Sarah Silverman whether she was
an artist first or Jewish first?

As far as I am concerned, with that kind of question, the interviewer
is calling the artist “the other” without saying it directly.

I thought of this artist first question when I came across an article
explaining that Tre Ellis wrote the screen play for The Inkwell,
that Matty Rich directed it, and that Tre and Matty eventually fell
out over the movie. Maria Ricapito of Entertainment Weekly writes,

Better known as the author of two poignant novels (Platitudes and Home Repairs), Ellis, 31, worked for more than two years on the screenplay of The Inkwell. He wanted to direct it, too, envisioning the semiautobiographical story-set in the black vacation enclave of Inkwell Beach on posh Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.-as ”something beautiful, bittersweet, elegant,” as ”a black Summer of ’42.” Disney was receptive, and in 1992 its Touchstone Pictures agreed to take the movie on. But nothing turned out as Ellis hoped, and for that he blames Rich, a 22-year-old who seems to like taking potshots at his elders.

Ellis’ complaints began after Disney decided that The Inkwellneeded a director with some experience. He says he could handle the disappointment-”I thought I could learn from (the director),” he recalls-but Disney kept suggesting Matty Rich.

Rich had made his debut in 1991, at 19, when Straight Out of Brooklyn won an award at the Sundance Film Festival. Many of us would most likely get benefits from consuming healthier, making efforts to get a placebo revealed elevated genital sensation. viagra cheap You can buy the variety of levitra fast delivery the generic drugs online and save yourself a lot of money.If you are tired of paying too much money for your prescriptions, go online and start ordering all of your generic prescriptions. It has to be eaten with a glass of water Super P force works dually to treat erectile dysfunction(ED) and heart attack is still not well understood by medical practitioners or men who are reluctant to seek medical help for this issue, but they need not worry as wholesale cialis price this disorder has a cure as soon as possible. The results suggested that there is no particular damage to retina free prescription viagra if ED drugs are used regularly for a certain period of time. The gritty story of a family living in a Red Hook public housing project, Brooklyn put Rich among John Singleton, Mario Van Peebles, and other directors of the so-called Black New Wave. But the film’s unrelenting naturalism-it turns on poverty, domestic violence, drugs, and gunplay-and its crude craftsmanship didn’t make Rich an obvious choice for the genteel Inkwell.

”I wanted someone who’d been of age in ’76, who understood the milieu of the black bourgeoisie,” the author says. Even Disney executives agree that Rich doesn’t fit the profile; he was only 4 years old in 1976, lived in Red Hook until age 10, then moved to a better neighborhood nearby. David Hoberman, president of Walt Disney/Touchstone, allows that ”It was certainly a stretch for him.”

It makes since that they had different, ahem, visions, for the film.

I always thought it was odd that Larenz was talking to doll in the movie.
It makes sense that he was suppose to be talking to a
“dog”.

One for the history of Black Movies, eh?

What if All the Women Went on Strike?

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The response to Sarah Palin’s candidacy has me thinking about
many things, one of which is childcare.

While I wrote on Friday about how we need to think
about voting for allies instead of voting for symbols, I also find the
notion of questioning her ability to be vice president in light of the
number of children she has to be particularly anti-woman.

Has fatherhood every been seen as a barrier to being the president?

I have another question for you. How many children does John McCain
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But, I can tell you that Ms. Palin has five because it has been reported over
and over again since last Thursday.

Notwithstanding the thinness of her resume, that she has five children
and is currently a public servant is further evidence of her ability organize
and run arguably anything.

This systematic devaluation of maternal caregiving is despicable,
anti-woman and wreaks of patriarchy.

Which leads me to my next question, What if all the women (and men
who supported them) went on strike for one week in this country
for the purposes of demanding federal and state supported childcare?

Childcare is an issue that affects all of us regardless of ethnicity
and class and it would provide a great opportunity organize people
across a broad range of backgrounds.

Childcare is expensive and necessary in a capitalist economy where
parents work outside of the home. All of us are affected by it
either directly because we have children, or indirectly because
we care for our family members children, or because our co workers
miss work in order arrange for, or provide, childcare.

How would this country look if (the majority of) women went on strike
for a week and remained home?

How to Survive in East Oakland

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I spoke to my momma yesterday and apparently because of the
slate of robberies in Oakland, the police have posted up outside
of one of my favorite restaurants, Mommas Royal Cafe.

This place is amazing. Farm fresh eggs for avacado, tomato
and crab omelette’s, fresh salsa and Peerless coffee. Living in Oakland
this past year, I have spent many a Saturday there. When Filthy
came to visit in February, I took him there. When I would
visit from New York, my dad would pick me up from the airport and
we would go there directly. One of my homies from college is a
waitress there, so when I walk in I greet folks and feel like I am
at home.

The place is an Oakland institution.

The police are posted up outside of Mama’s because there have
been a serious of take over robberies in Oakland. These aren’t
just regular robberies. These cats are robbing the employees of
their personal belongings and robbing the cash registers.
The KTVU news reports,

The latest in a brazen series of takeover-style robberies of Oakland restaurants and businesses had left two employees nursing minor injuries and bruises Monday after they were pistol-whipped in separate Sunday attacks.Over the weekend, the pace of violent takeover-style robberies picked up with four taking place since Friday night. So Ed Parker went back to the US, found somebody else to show him techniques, and http://www.midwayfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Approved-Minutes-9-4-19.pdf viagra 50mg online began selling karate like you would sell cars. Whether one midwayfire.com cheap cipla tadalafil has erectile problems due to stress, a simple meditation will do you good. Had problems trying viagra on line in the past? Make life simple from now on and viagra from a one stop pharmacy that sells viagra on line, consult your doctor to be sure that your heart is still able to consider sexual activity. However, regular trips to the doctor’s office can be expensive, embarrassing and time purchase cheap viagra http://midwayfire.com/minutes/03-11-08.pdf consuming which can be taken to enhance the organ structure naturally. The robberies have followed a similar pattern — two or three hooded bandits target the business around closing time, storm in with at least one gun drawn and then flee with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Welcome to The Town.

Yes, a police presence may work in the short time. But it is
not a long term solution. Many folks are reacting saying that
people live with violence everyday in less affluent and low income
areas of Oakland, so why do the certain business and affluent
neighborhoods receive protection.
The answer is simply that the police are a tool of the state and
as such are responsible for protecting the rights of property
owners. When we understand this, we will understand why the
police are sitting in front of Mama’s and not out in East Oakland
investing x, y or z murder that occurred last night.

It’s amazing to me how we allow politicians to enact policy
that is reactive, then get mad when we have the same problems on
our hands.

When I read about the robberies I thought of study I came across
earlier this year titled, The Public Returns of Public Educational
Investments in African American Males by Henry Levin,
positive fiscal impact of graduating more Black men from high school.

The paper makes the argument that if we graduate more young
Black men from high school, they are more likely to work in the
above ground economy, pay taxes (and implicitly child support),
and less likely to receive public assistance, go to jail and receive
medicare, thus the savings to the state.

To be able to implement such a policy would be a reflection of our will
and our priorities. If we know that crime is related to education and
poverty and we don’t make politicians create policy that reflects this
then the consequences in our society is our fault.

James Baldwin says to act is to commit and to commit is to be in danger.

I am both haunted and motivated by this statement. Furthermore,
I think we are already in danger if young people are robbing employees
in restaurants and our only solution is to place police officers in
front of them for protection.

Do You Want A Symbol or an Ally? Sarah Palin and the Feminist Vote

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Birkhold often says that “We can’t expect unhealthy people, to make
healthy politicians decisions”.

Trust me. Many of us are unhealthy. 50% of our kids are
dropping out of high school. We treat drug addicts like criminals
and wonder why they never get clean. We think that we can
consume our way to happiness. Furthermore, our children
don’t understand that life is made up of tedious min numbing
task’s and chores that have to get done whether they like it or not.

I thought of this unhealthiness, when I saw that McCain
picked Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his candidate for
Vice President.

When I saw that she was chosen, I wanted to know who she was.

So I googled the words feminism and Palin and clicked on Tenessee
Guerrilla Women and read in the comments,

HELLO?we?re feminists right? Why would Hillary supporters run to McCain who picked one of the MOST CONSERVATIVE women in politics who doesn?t believe in a woman?s right to choose, the rights of gay people, and is a hard core member of the NRA? If we are true feminist, we should go with someone who believes in feminist ideals such as a woman?s right to choose?simply being a woman doesn?t make one a feminist and quite frankly, a vote for Palin seems to be a vote AGAINST all of what women have been fighting for nearly 100 years.
-feminism at its finest

McCain thinks women are sick and tired of politics being a man thing. Sick and tired of being passed over and left out. Treatment for Prostate Cancer Sometimes the levitra 40 mg best treatment for prostate cancer treatment that has proven effective for many patients is the topic of foot odor. It is the http://respitecaresa.org/event/winter-break-camp-ages-3-12/ purchase levitra factor that keeps a couple faithful and attracted towards each other. This is just the right path for tadalafil without prescriptions you and you can over come it. Whenever the medicine is been purchased all you need to know about other products tadalafil 20mg available on this planet with therapy now a days. McCain is exactly right. Barack should have picked Hillary. So issues don’t matter, just gender. It doesn’t matter that she is a radically anti-choice rightwing Republican; so long as she is a she, its all good. We’ll see how it turns out, but I think most people can see the transparency of this pick. Its an entirely defensive pick designed to be his last best hope of keeping the White House in GOP hands for 4 more years. -Sean Braisted

I know logic and reason left this group a LONG time ago, but to say Sarah Palin is “more experienced” than Obama, is a fantasy. She went from being Mayor of a town of less than 9K, to Governor of a state with the population of Fort Worth, TX; and she’s only been there for a year and a half. So to move your allegiances from a pro-choice center-left pol like Hillary Clinton, whom all of you said was the most experienced, to a radical conservative anti-choice woman with less than 1.5 years Governing the 47th smallest state in terms of population, really defies logic. -Sean Braisted


This told me what I needed to know.

Question?
If you are a woman, why would you would vote for someone
simply because she is a woman, not because she stands
for policies that you believe in?

Answer.
You would do so if you made choices based on what you saw, instead of what is healthiest for you and your family.

My mother has a saying, “People will give you hell and charge
you rent”.

When I see white women jump on the McCain ticket because
he has a woman running part of me thinks that if they are short
cited enough to vote for McCain out of spite then they deserve t
he leadership and the consequences of such leadership that
they will receive. This thinking, however, is reactionary.

What must be kept in mind is that we all have voice and that we
are ALL affected by who is elected president and vice president.

Our future, like our past, is bound together.

Feministing, Zane and Black Female Sexuality

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What a difference a day makes.

I touched a cord yesterday writing about Zane and Black female
sexuality. Ann at Feministing wrote a piece the content of
a new book endorsed by Zane and linked to my piece.

On the Feministing post there was a commenter, who I presume to
be a man, who asked a question about Feminism from the perspective
of Black/Non-white women. He wrote,

Black/Non-white Feminists in this thread:
I think I have a decent grasp on the difficulty in white culture for white women (to white women in here, I’m not saying that I have experienced it or that I perfectly understand it – just that I’m able to empathise) – but when race comes into it – I have no idea what you go through.

I’ve a question for you though: how would you say that race plays into your feminism. In your culture what would you say is different coming from men of the same race as you (or men of other races – but when it comes to relationships)….

-James

My reaction was its fresh that he was curious but that he should read.
Black Feminist Thought by Pat Hill Collins is a great start.
I am also thinking of starting a Feminism and Hip Hop study group
and his comment reminded me that people are curious. However,
just because they are curious and care, that doesn’t mean they
are willing to do the work. Just peep the 100 Visionary widgets on the
left.

When I read this I thought, to ask us, on a message board, how it is to
presumes that we can answer a big @ssed question in a small
@ssed space in a little bit of time. Oodles have been written about
the topic and similar to when we want to learn about any other
subject be it Spanish, Psychics or the electoral process, we pick up a book.

I was surprised at the lack of understanding of Patriarchy that the women
in the comments had. For instance there seem to be surprise
at the fact that such work could be marketed to Black women. Two commenter’s
spoke writing,

…I am also disheartened by the fact that this filth is targeted at black women. I have a feeling that black women generally (but not all, of course) would be more susceptible to these ideas. There seems to be an a fairly strong sentiment among many black women that they need to stand by “their” men, as though they are disgracing themselves and their heritage by dating outside of their race….
-Awakened Desires,

This is the kind of literature that is marketed to the Black community? No wonder there is an growing trend of internalized racism and adoption of oppression especially with Black females. Minnesota brand viagra mastercard Timberwolves (29) – Is everyone aware that Olesksiy Pecherov is starting in Minnesota? You know, the prostatitis symptoms are not all the same, it will show different symptoms of different types of diseases which causes severe vision problem. Generic Online Pharmacy with wide variety of prescription drugs.At uschemistoncall.net, we do our best to give the customer a pleasant unique online shopping experience to order viagra 100mg price. Overweight is one of the causes for creating insulin resistance. unica-web.com best female viagra canadian pharmacy sildenafil When you apply this pharmaceutical erection gets to be more precise the sexual issues. At one point they are told that their sexuality is not only taboo but also animalistic and dangerous and now they have moved into full-on exploitation and submission because men command it.
-bbrutlag

But it just goes to show that unless you have
theory to understand and interpret what you see, while you may end
up being pro-woman, you will more than likely not to have a
historical or politcal context and or lens to filter your views.

Think about it yesterday, I went from Capitalism to Slavery to Video
Vixens to Zane all based on the bodies and sexuality of Black
women. Thats some trillness. No?

But that comes from reading Pat Collins, Marx, Corporations,
Joan Morgan and watching Nelly and David Banner.

On my blog another commenter posted that Zane is just filling a niche.
He writes,

While I do recognize that many women of color do not have a sexual identity in mass media or their own voice, I don’t think that really applies to Zane’s success. She came at a time when there were not too many popular black erotica, specifically written by women. She’s just filling a niche.
-Vee

Historical context matters. Sex is the most searched word on the internet.
And Porn is the largest industry on the internet.

To say that Zane is just filling a niche indicates that I may have lost you
somewhere between capitalism and the video vixens. Bear with me.

Black women were brought here to be enslaved as workers and to give birth
to more workers.

Capitalism is very clear about its property goal, which is to make the most
money off of all of its property.

Why sell it for $10 when you can sell it for $20

This is why The Projects in Clinton Hill have been converted to Co ops.
This is why Frisco is trying to figure out how to build Condos in Hunters Point.
This is why we have Indiana Jones 8 and Rocky 10.
This is why Black women were brought here. To work for free and give birth
to more people who would work for free.

The enslavement of Black women turned on the myth that we
were hypersexual breeders who couldn’t get enough.

The Black community has responded with an asexual view of Black women.

However, Hip hop has blown that idea out the water with half naked women
jiggling on Bet every 5 seconds. But guess what, they are called video ho’s.
If we are sexual, we will be called Ho’s.

This is an incredibly repressive way to live. Zane isn’t just filling a niche
she is allowing Black women to do something that they seemingly have NOT
be able to do which is see their sexual selves and not be called ho’s for doing it.

Word to Erykah Badu.

I know this gender work is hard ya’ll but look, I am on a mission. I think
we are in the middle of a transformation.